Which do you like better and why? I'd have to say Lexis seems to be the Cadillac of legal search at the moment, but I don't know all of West's tricks yet, so I might be swayed. If you're already a legal search ninja on either of these, please share some tips.

My favorite part of Westlaw is the KeyNumbers (at least in the old Westlaw). Go to the KeyNumbers link at the top, and then click on West Key Number Digest Outline.

You get a list of "all" legal topics and subtopics. Then you can drill down to what you are looking for, and select the checkbox(es) next to the one's you are interested in. Then click the "Search selected" button at the bottom.

Now you can search just within this KeyNumber, minimizing searches in other non-relevant parts. Narrow by jurisdiction, etc. Normally if you search using the normal search boxes, it would search entire cases/statutes, etc. Here, it will only search headnotes in that particular topic! You'll get a list of all the pertinent headnotes once you search the KeyNumber.

Ditto the the digest in west law. It comes in handy when research for legal memo. I like the Sherpardize (spelling?) of Lexis, but it seems like west has it now too. I like the cae summary of each case in Lexis though, help me brief faster.

Do any law firms actually use either of these products? Particularly Lexis Advance... it's only in beta. I've only just started using this stuff, and I maybe prefer Westlaw a bit, but I've avoided the premium products altogether. Maybe I'm just being silly.